Dirty Tackle

Andres Iniesta thinks this ‘end of an era’ talk about Barcelona is pretty dumb

Bayern Munich beating Barcelona in the first leg of the Champions League semifinal wasn't terribly surprising. Beating them 4-0 was worthy of a gasp, but it's also been used to make sweeping declarations by those who are eager to write off Barcelona as a washed up super power.

What this assessment fails to take into account is the fact that Barca are one win away from another La Liga title and that they still extended their streak of consecutive years in the Champions League semfinals to six. Given that, Andres Iniesta thinks that dismissing Barcelona as past it is flat out wrong.

"I think it is unfair to talk of a cyclical change," the Spanish World Cup winner told a news conference on Thursday.

"Over the last five years this team has won two Champions League titles...and we are on the point of winning a fourth La Liga title.

"It makes no sense to analyse five years in the one match in Munich. For me the end of an era is when years go by and you don't win any titles." [...]

"When you win the league you cannot say it has been a bad year because it is the most important title," said midfielder Iniesta.

With an all-German Champions League final seeming likely, those same people who have written off Barcelona are also declaring Germany as the absolute greatest footballing nation on the planet right now. And again, Iniesta thinks that kind of hyperbole should be taken down a notch.

"Bayern and Borussia are very good teams, well prepared physically and technically, and they have shown it in these two games," Iniesta said.

"It isn't that La Liga has dropped below them, it is just that the teams have overcome their rivals."